Jeffrey C. Bird: A healthier village must be the goal

I’ve been blessed in my career in medicine over the past 30 years to care for many patients living in poverty, and it has always been a challenge.

Those in poverty lack the resources needed many times to take good care of themselves. Frequently, they lack the ability to get to and from the doctor or the funds and resources to buy healthy food and to prepare it in a healthy manner. They often don’t have the time or knowledge to provide self-care for their chronic diseases.

All of these factors make it difficult for doctors caring for these struggling families. Hospitals are also challenged because many times these same obstacles result in patients ending up in emergent situations and using higher cost health care.

I’ve spent many years teaching resident physicians in medical education at Indiana University Health Ball Memorial Hospital. We spent specific time teaching these young physicians how family doctors need to better understand what poverty means to people’s ability to be and stay healthy.

These doctors exhibit extreme concern for the situations and difficulties people in poverty face in their day-to-day lives and they focus on trying to help them be healthy.

As a hospital administrator, I understand more acutely what it means on an institutional basis. IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital is a not-for-profit institution, therefore, we don’t turn away anyone who needs care, and I take great pride in that.

But the reality is poor health and poor choices are inextricably intertwined in the finances of hospitals, and drive up the cost of health care for everyone. In 2013, IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital provided $16.8 million in “charity care,” serving 17,000 patients with that care.

When I look at our local situation with poverty and what has transpired since the War on Poverty began, I know that health and health care is a serious part of that picture. We need to give those living in poverty better options and choices.

As an example, excessive dependence on fast food is so unhealthy yet it is sometimes the easier option for those living in poverty. This continues the spiral of bad health. We also find ourselves with no easy access to grocery stores thereby creating “food deserts.” For people who are caught in the constant crisis of survival, fast food can create a convenient, low cost way to feed the family. This must change.

An even bigger issue affecting the health of those in poverty is smoking. Too many times people with the least resources still use those resources for buying cigarettes. Nicotine and other substances in tobacco seem to provide to low income smokers a short term antidote to the turmoil in their lives, yet its effect on their health cannot be overstated.

So here I sit as a physician with the realization that from a health perspective, we’re not that much better off than we were 30 to 50 years ago, despite the dramatic technological and knowledge gains that we now possess.

We’ve certainly greatly advanced ways of caring for people, but the barriers that keep people from being healthy are still gravely important to the future and well-being of our communities and our country.

I was again blessed to grow up right here in Delaware County in a family where I was loved, encouraged, and challenged. Not many in my extended family have furthered their education beyond high school, but I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to work hard and use my gifts and passion to care for others, and I hope to make a difference.

We can all make a difference. They say, “It takes a village to raise a child.” I believe that it takes a village to make a better village and I am a village person!

This is my community and I know that all of us, not only the health care community or social service groups, need to be involved. Business, education, the faith community, individuals — there’s a job for all of us. I want to stay in my village and make it better. If all of us pitch in with that attitude and we play a role in breaking down barriers, encouraging and teaching people who struggle, what a healthier people and what a healthier village we would have.